Civil Partnerships were introduced to the UK by the Civil Partnership Act 2004.

They are legally different to Marriage, despite the claim that they offere equality. Not least, they deny us the right to any elemenet of religion in the ceremony.

Equal, but different. That cannot equate to equality.

Having said that, for us, we believe that it does demonstrate our rejection of the traditional marriage roles. Registering our Civil Partnership will enable us to provide security to each other and to our daughter.

The process of egistering our Marriage requires us to:

• Give notice of our intention to form a civil partnership at our local Registry Offce..
• Wait for fifteen days, the official notice period
• Sign the registration, the two witnesses present must also to sign the registration

This highlights one difference to heterosexual marriage where the marriage occurs on the saying of the vows rather than the signing of the register.

We will be having a ceremony in addition to the official process above. We will also be introducing other traditional elements from the heterosexual marriage traditions, but this will be a unique celebration of our particuar relationship.